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Illustration is a form of art in which the artist uses various forms of drawing, painting, photography and other multimedia to express and draw detail to a subject or decorate informational text in published media such as magazines, newspapers, animations and video games and depending on the desired purpose can be expressive, stylised realistic or highly technical. Derived via Old French from the Latin word illustrare, illustration means to illuminate in a spiritual or intellectual enlightenment, which in itself is personally inspiring and encourages a broad range of interpretations in the art world.
 Illustration magazine is a great source for artists, collectors and exhibitions that talk in depth about the philosophy and key elements of the subject area. They also discuss the work of great artists from the past as well as new graduates currently coming out of college and everything in between, which is extremely helpful when looking for art inspiration or planning how to set yourself up in the business/job side of illustration.
 Having a particular interest in concept art, more specifically for video games, I feel drawn to the decorative and expressive elements in illustation and hope to pursue this into the second year of level 3 art & design (specialising in graphics) and possibly obtain a job in this field. Currently most illustators work on a freelance basis which is usually workable around their personal life, where they arrange their own hours as long as the discussed deadline with the client is met. Being freelance requires little to no qualifications as long as you hold a natural talent and strong portfolio although a degree in illustration or other art related subjects such as graphic design would assist the understanding of the subject more in depth, but of course are not necessary. Skills like time management along with attention to detail, the ability to work to a brief and a good amount of creativity and imagination are key for employment in this field, as they are with most other jobs. Many agencies are available to represent their artwork which have a line up of various clients from a wide range of companies all around the world looking for unique designs for packaging, clothing, branding and other media. Submitting your designs/work is easier than ever in the current age as emailing makes it extremely easy to upload, discuss and disperse portfolios to different agencies which (providing they have a website) can display your work online for millions to browse through, widening the chances of being commissioned.
 As it's such a broad area, illustration can be done traditionally on paper, canvas etc, printmaking is also popular where the artist carves patterns or pictures into a wood block, lino or other materials and print onto a surface and also online digitally using graphics tablets/pc mice on different apps or programs. The most popular and common program being photoshop as it's quality and functionality is excellent, though most people use a mixture of programs as one may lack in some areas, photoshop again for instance is great for clean lines and imagery manipulation but painttoolsai in my experience is better for linework as it has a specific layer function for lines while other programs do not. Illustry can be animated in either a form of .gif files where an image is manually moved/redrawn layer by layer then compressed together with a timer so each slide is played for a certain amount of time and if moving quick enough can have an almost film-like look.
 Illustration can also be viewed in a technical and scientific nature, reconstructions, component design diagrams, cutaways and exploded view diagrams are generally designed to describe or explain subjects to a nontechnical audience so must provide an impression of what an object's desired use or what it does. Software is usually used to create accurate representations of something, say a car motor, in 3d or 2d which can be edited easily and used to visualize explanations.
There are thousands of artists around the world who specialise in illustration and have wonderful work, one of my favourites in particular is Nadia Flower whose work I researched earlier in the course for inspiration, our task was to create a fashion piece inspired by our era and I was drawn immediately to her beautiful, flowing designs. She chooses mainly a digital approach to her designs, but also a traditional method occasionally, using watercolour and hand-drawn pen on paper.  Her designs are used in magazines to promote makeup or fashion, but also has a kids clothing line with her more graphic, cartoony designs.
 Another favourite of mine is Chiara Bautista, I came across her a few years ago after seeing one of her rabbit and wolf works on Tumblr, the complex way she displays deep messages in her drawings while making them so simple is astonishing, like Nadia she uses a mix of traditional and digital methods. Little is known about her as an artist, she keeps everything extremely private so the only place she uploads her work currently is on Facebook. Both artist's styles have an almost fantasy-like feel to them, though this is stronger in Chiara's work. Her character wolf is made from a literal constellation and rabbit being a human who resembles a rabbit through her personality and spirit. The pair tell a deep story of friendship and love, bound around the contradicting fact that wolves would naturally hunt and kill rabbits for food, while these two are shown curled up together sleeping in contentment after having shared a pizza takeaway, showing there are other alternatives to natural instinct and sometimes it is better for both parties to get along than follow the basic means to a gruesome end. Most of Chiara's work is open to personal interpretation which is what gives it such a strong engagement to the viewer, making them thing deeper and more clearly about the world around them and the messages or meanings that can be applied to everyday life displayed through pages and pages of delicate artwork. Nadia's work is more commission based, she'll draw for money and will create whatever is needed to fulfill the brief she is given, there's not much personal art or art that she's drawn for her own gain or enjoyment that I can find. Her art also is more specified to fashion, clothing etc but still has an enchanting visual feel while looking at it, the items she incorporates in her work such as many types of floral patterns, flowers, occasional animal wings, feathers, a kind of subtle natural theme. Fragile, delicate, yet graphic and strong describes both of them perfectly.
Another artist I have found is Yo Az from Paris, France. Their artwork is highly geometric and bright, using a graphics tablet and pc apps to create the pieces. His style is quite varied, drawing anything from human faces from life/shows (such as Walter White from Breaking Bad) to animals, which seems to be his most common theme. Neon colours are used to emphasize the geometric shapes used which gives it an almost electric pop psychedelic feel. As wonderful and colourful as his pieces are, he doesn't seem to experiment with different angles, most of his work is from a forward-facing frontal position and is usually of heads of animals only, cutting off the rest of their body. This could be because creating and colouring the whole animal using only shapes would be extremely time consuming but nonetheless is just something I noticed compared to the other artists who freely express different positions and angles in their artwork which have a natural flow to them, without rigidness or stiff looking bodies. Although Yo's artwork is mainly of heads they still have character and a naturalness about them, instead of looking basic, stiff and inanimate. Like Nadia, Yo Az designs prints for tshirts and clothing, sometimes even movie posters, but only uses graphic media to do this instead of sketching designs out first and recreating them on a tablet. His work is certainly unique and intriguing but personally I'm more drawn to the meaning and fantasy elements of art which is why I greatly prefer Chiara and Nadia, but credit is still due to Yo's unique, bright style.
Researching artists, magazines/books and various other sources found on the internet for this essay has helped widen my understanding of the illustration world. I feel like I'm more aware of the processes needed to take the next steps after the end of the second year of this Art & Design course. Now that I have found a good amount of inspiring artists and in turn, new techniques, I'll try to apply them to my own work but in my own way, in hope I can improve and push my work further to improve for the final major project.

Behance.net, (2008). nadia flower on Behance. [online] Available at: behance.net/nadiaflower [Accessed 21/07/2017]

Nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk, (unknown). Illustrator. [online] Available at: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/illustrator  [Accessed:21/07/2017]

lemonadeillustration.com, (unknown). Lemonade Illustration Agency. [online] Available at: https://lemonadeillustration.com [Accessed:21/07/2017]

Chiara Bautista, (unknown). Chaira Bautista [online] Available at: www.facebook.com/chiarabautistaartwork [Accessed:21/07/2017]